While there of course have been some adjustments to the standards of beauty in western culture, women like to think they've changed greatly . . . however, going by some of the most well known examples, they really haven't:

While there were of course some differences in some short periods of time or in specific industries (like say the crack whore look of fashion models of the 80's and 90's) - when it comes down to lasting examples of beauty, they're all strikingly similar; defined by an hourglass waist, chesty with hips, and even a similar pose with the legs, appearing to reduce the size of the thighs.

The tits are bigger, and the faces are also changed. The chins are narrower, the lips wider and more smiley, and straight high-bridged Roman/Greek noses were swapped for smaller bridges and a upturned tip.

You know, my girl has some wonderful, beautiful curves and just a bit of a bellly. Nowhere near even Rubenesque. Yet she feels that because she isn't a size zero she can't really be very attractive. Despite her rejection of feminism she feels the social pressure to look like the gals in many of the retouched paintings.

Don't get me wrong, I dig skinny chicks as well. But there is inherent beauty in the human form and many body types have their own pleasures. This single standard for beauty (which I think is something that has always existed, the standard changes but not the existence of the standard) just breaks my heart.

Ever see a skinny chick belly dance? It just doesn't work without at least some jiggle.

This sort of thing is *interesting* but it certainly doesn't speak about some universal shift in taste, only what is portrayed in certain circles as The One True Beauty. It's like the color cartel that gets together every year in France to decide what is going to be "in" and "out" for the next twelve months so the fashion world can coordinate marketing campaigns.

megarian:I did nude modeling for a few years in college. The models with the curves always got more and better gigs...especially with figure photography and sculputre.

Also, water is wet.

It's like we're DESTINED to be friends. I took several nude drawing workshops. To this day, I paint better than I draw by a long shot, but it was still fun. Especially drawing that one dude. Can't remember his name, but I still remember what his arse looked like.

Might be fun to nude model now that my back is covered in tattoos. It'd be interesting to see what the students made of them...

Pretty-much every picture in the history of time with either the "monochrome except for one element" schtick or an Instagram-like vignette and intentionally naffed-up colors has absolutely zero to do with art.

Greydog:In almost every example, the original is far superior to the alternative.It's a shame what Hollywood, and the media has done to the self image of women and young girls.There's nothing wrong with a little ......er........flab.....er........extra flesh........mmmmmmm...flesh.I wish young girls could get past the notion that slimmer is better.That's just me, though.

MmmmmmmHmmmmm.Come get some, junior.

/I just noticed with her arms over the tops of her teats, they look like dick-tips.

Lydia_C:hubris73: I didn't realize today's standard of beauty included freakishly long skinny giraffe necks...Maybe next time they can work on getting the proportions right instead of just using a color picker to shave off some fleshtone

TV's Vinnie:The artist has some pretty freaky notions about what a "modern woman" looks like.

[www.nsmbl.nl image 656x494] [24.media.tumblr.com image 340x494]

I should do a study on trendy, deep artists' distorted view of society's distorted view of perfection. Did you see the woman who made a supposedly "life-sized" Barbie to show how ridiculous Barbie's proportions were? What she produced looked nothing like a Barbie.

BolloxReader:You know, my girl has some wonderful, beautiful curves and just a bit of a bellly. Nowhere near even Rubenesque. Yet she feels that because she isn't a size zero she can't really be very attractive. Despite her rejection of feminism she feels the social pressure to look like the gals in many of the retouched paintings.

Don't get me wrong, I dig skinny chicks as well. But there is inherent beauty in the human form and many body types have their own pleasures. This single standard for beauty (which I think is something that has always existed, the standard changes but not the existence of the standard) just breaks my heart.

Ever see a skinny chick belly dance? It just doesn't work without at least some jiggle.

This sort of thing is *interesting* but it certainly doesn't speak about some universal shift in taste, only what is portrayed in certain circles as The One True Beauty. It's like the color cartel that gets together every year in France to decide what is going to be "in" and "out" for the next twelve months so the fashion world can coordinate marketing campaigns.

I can't cherry pick a line from your quote on this phone, but my wife is a skinny belly dance teacher and if you can find a video of Rachel Brice (the guru of American Tribal style) jiggling, I'd like to see it.

Bonzo_1116:The tits are bigger, and the faces are also changed. The chins are narrower, the lips wider and more smiley, and straight high-bridged Roman/Greek noses were swapped for smaller bridges and a upturned tip.

^ I'm guessing most of you guys who failed to notice this part didn't look past the first thing that jumped out at you. Most of them have much wider mouths now and it was really kind of creepy.

Apparently I'd have been quite above average back in the day. Who knew.

toraque:MrSteve007: While there of course have been some adjustments to the standards of beauty in western culture, women like to think they've changed greatly . . . however, going by some of the most well known examples, they really haven't:

While there were of course some differences in some short periods of time or in specific industries (like say the crack whore look of fashion models of the 80's and 90's) - when it comes down to lasting examples of beauty, they're all strikingly similar; defined by an hourglass waist, chesty with hips, and even a similar pose with the legs, appearing to reduce the size of the thighs.

Well, yeah, but the big difference is that before 600 years ago women apparently didn't have arms.

Glad to see evolution caused women to grow arms for child rearing and fixing sammiches.

MrSteve007:While there of course have been some adjustments to the standards of beauty in western culture, women like to think they've changed greatly . . . however, going by some of the most well known examples, they really haven't:

While there were of course some differences in some short periods of time or in specific industries (like say the crack whore look of fashion models of the 80's and 90's) - when it comes down to lasting examples of beauty, they're all strikingly similar; defined by an hourglass waist, chesty with hips, and even a similar pose with the legs, appearing to reduce the size of the thighs.

Yes, body size/weight is the thing that goes in and out of fashion, not body shape.

Most great beauty icons have the same waist to hip ratio, regardless of whether they're 100 lbs or 170 lbs. Why do so many people fail at understanding body proportions? I've read that most studies on this kinda thing show WHR is a more important factor than body weight, breast size, etc. when evaluating physical attractiveness. It's SCIENCE!!!

Looks like somebody finally arrived in the 1990s and got a copy of Kai's Power Goo.

I'm not quite sure where they got the idea that today's standard of beauty involves teenage boy physics where waist and hip measurements are identical, coupled to facial features an anime character would be proud of, though.

Most of those were terrible, like an angry femecists idea of what she thinks our ideal looks like. Only a few were beauty type works to begin with. Plus a few were rubenesque paintings cherry picking a time in history when people liked chubby chicks or at least painted them.

Omg so much pressure for women (and men now) to be skinny. Average fatness steadily incresing at same time.